


Before We Set Sail

by TheRedCrow



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: A Lot of Death, Angst, Body Horror, Death, Found Family, Gen, Harsh Language, IPRE, Multi, PTSD, Starblaster - Freeform, Stolen Century Spoilers, Trauma, my...kids
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-28
Updated: 2018-07-25
Packaged: 2018-12-20 20:12:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11928378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheRedCrow/pseuds/TheRedCrow
Summary: One big-mostly-Happy family.Y'all ever think about the shit the IPRE crew went through before the IPRE. I do.Anyway... I didn't see enough of my boy Barry... J... BlueJeans and thought I'd start this off with him. Tell me who you want to see next and I'll prioritize them.





	1. One Last Thing

Dear god, the bodies. So many bodies. He didn't ask for this! He didn't want this! 

Barry woke up in a cold sweat, silently, like he had done since he had been with Lup, since being picked as a crew member for the IPRE, since he had been shunned for screaming at the academy. He looked around his messy bed made for two, he was alone. He could tell from the mess that he had been, well, not thrashing, but squirming in his sleep. This was a recent redevelopment for his nightmares, at least recent to him. 

Barry didn't know the exact cycle in terms of number, he could describe most of the ones he was alive for, but he had stopped counting around cycle forty. He reckoned it was probably 6 or seven years ago now when… it had happened. He sighed, reconciling that he wasn't going to get any more sleep tonight. He got up and threw a baggy white tee shirt on. He didn't bother putting his glasses on for risk of catching his sorry state in the mirror. He could only imagine how he looked, his messy short hair, his tired eyes, still somewhat covered in sweat, but most of all, he didn't want to see himself sad and scared.

He made his way to the kitchen and started making himself some coffee in the dark. He heard footsteps behind him, making him spin around, wand in hand pointed accusingly at a figure that stood in the kitchen door. The figure held their hands up as if to say “don't shoot.” Barry was, by all means, a fairly massive human being, only a few inches shorter than Magnus and less hefty, but the figure was taller than him. He squinted his eyes.

“Lup?” He asked.

She cleared her throat. “Yeah. What are you doin’ up, uh, babe?” she asked quickly.

“It was, uh, another dream.” He said, lowering his wand and rubbing his face. She sounded tired. “I thought you had made your way up to Lucretia’s room by now. Taako’s usually more of a night owl than you are, right?”

“Yeah, I, uh, just came from his room. I was on my way up when I heard you in the kitchen. Have you two, er, you know, talked about the whole, uh, thing?”

Barry chuckled. “What? Me and Lucretia? I don't know what there’s to talk about, as long as she knows I'm okay with it, and she’s okay with it, obviously.”

“Have you two talked, like, at all? Recently?”

Barry opened his mouth with a skeptical smile before shutting it and frowning. “You know, babe, now that you mention it. It does feel like she's been avoiding me recently. Maybe the whole thing makes her more uncomfortable than I thought.”

Lup cleared her throat again and shifted her position, leaning onto the door frame. The two couldn't really see each other in the dark, but he could tell she was doing that thing twins do when they're deep in thought and looking away from the person they were talking to.

“You okay, babe? You seem uncomfortable.” Barry asked.

“Should we… when are we gonna tell Taako?”

Barry shrugged his shoulders and rolled his eyes.“Whenever you’re ready. I told you, the longer you wait the harder it's gonna be.”

“Yeah,” she let out a sigh. “Yeah that's true isn't it?”

“I may not have as much history with him, but I love him like a brother, too, you know? Course if I told em that he wouldn’t let me live it down. God, can you imagine?” 

Her head jerked up and she stared at him for little while as he turned and took his freshly brewed coffee and began to sip it. They sat, staring at each other in the dark for a moment. Barry was smiling that knowing smile he knew she hated that he couldn't help.

“You wanna… tell me about your dream?”

Barry’s smile faded. He turned around to refill his cup, once it was full again he kept his back to her. “It was, uh, it was the same dream as usual, you know the, uh… the ritual-”

“Remind me.”

Barry looked down at his cup, full to the brim with no intention of drinking it.  
“My… parents bring out the bodies and they, uh… they resurrect a few and the bodies… start coming for me.” He took a deep, shaky breath. “Y-you remember now right?”

“Please, Barry.”

He let out another shaky breath and clenched his fists on the counter. “They start biting and scratching and so… I try to resurrect some to protect myself and… and the whole pile gets up. Bodies that have been decaying for-for weeks and months, bodies that have been mutilated and mangled suddenly stand up and- l-l-like nothing the entire horde turns and they tear everything apart.”

“I-”

“ _Everything_ , Lup. Everything and everyone. The tribe tries to fight back but they can't convince any of the corpses to listen. My parents, as shitty as they were, they didn’t deserve to be… to be that. It wasn't just them, _the kids, Lup, the kids. **My friends**_.”

Another moment of silence. Lup was the first to speak.

“That wasn’t it though, was it?”

Barry stiffened up. “What, isn’t that enough?” He begged.

“It’s just, Barry, you’ve been having these dreams for how long?”

He sighed. “Since it happened, I guess?”

“You got used to it, though. So what-what made this time harder.”

Barry walked over to one of the uncomfortable metal chairs in the kitchen and collapsed in it. He looked tired and broken. He took a minute to consider what he was going to say and how to say it. 

“I’m sorry, Lup. I know you love Taako but… You weren’t there the last time he.... Well the last time he died. You’re always off leading the fight but Taako stays behind-”

“Because he’s scared-”

“No.”

Lup scoffed. “Trust me, Barold, if anyone knew-”

“Lup, he’s scared of losing us, for good. He stays behind to protect us. When he died, I was holding him, and the look he gave me wasn’t- it was relief that I was okay. It was real it was- I don’t know but- that image of his eyes just- just going dark. His body going limp and the worst part was- I thought, just for a minute, just for a second but that's all it took...I thought _‘I can bring him back_.’”

There were a couple minutes where Lup just stared at Barry’s horrified face. Barry finally spoke up.

“I can’t Lup, am I just a burden, just a danger to everyone on the ship? One day is- is someone gonna go down and I- I just decide I can’t wait a year? What would even happen, what if that’s it, oh god! What if I can’t control it?!” Tears began to well up in his eyes, blurring his vision.

He heard quick steps across the kitchen before Lup grabbed his face and gingerly kissed his forehead. “Barold, You wouldn’t and you are not. You are so important to me, now and forever, okay? I don’t give a damn whether or not you know for sure that you wouldn’t or that you are because for FUCKS sake, _I know it_.” she was crying now, too, but she sounded different than usual, something was off in her kiss. She kissed his head again and began to walk away.

“I’ll- sniff -I’ll see you in the morning, big guy. Night.”

After she had left Barry was still thinking about the kiss, her voice, the dark, and one last thing.

“She hasn’t called me Barold in years.”


	2. Something Small

Memories refused remove themselves from Taako’s mind. He laid sulking in bed, trying to forget caravan wagons riding away, hateful looks and scornful words, an empty home and a body they could not afford to bury. Life had not been fair to Taako and Lup, but this had forged them to be stronger than the world. So much stronger, in fact, that where the world that had treated them like dirt had become no more than dust, taako and Lup had survived.

They had taken this survival and this treatment in different ways. Taako talked himself up, he never felt the need to explain himself but he did regardless because it was surely a blessing to others. Lup walked the walk, however, people saw her and they simply _knew_. She was a force as much as Taako was a sign, an unstoppable force and an immovable object working together, inseparable. At least, Taako had thought. In over a hundred years, Taako and Lup had not once had a secret between the two of them, nothing that they did not feel they could tell the other. This had changed.

It was nothing really. One thing that hardly mattered to Taako at all, but the more he read into it, the worse it got. The more he tried to stop thinking about it, the more he did. He imagined layer upon layer, and every new depth he reached he felt another brick in the wall between him and his sister. Hew knew it was silly, but he couldn’t help it.

The door slid open behind him, light creeped in and a wide shadow creeped across the floor, Taako, laying in his bunk and pretending to meditate while everyone else slept, recognized it immediately: Barry. Dreading confrontation, and fearful that Barry had put the pieces together regarding their encounter only a few moments ago, Taako stayed still as rock, as though he had been deep in meditation all night. Barry reached a hand forward for just a moment, then pulled it back and shut the door, leaving Taako in the dark.

With the sound of the door shutting and the darkness came the images once more. Visions of caravan wagons riding away from Taako and Lup, the cheerful songs of which that the twins had once seen as a bastion for necessities and company turning into a grim reminder of what and who they were. Scenes and the physical memory of caravaners eating the food he had made while he and his sister went hungry ached in his head and his stomach. Scene upon scene of being looked down upon by other elves, of being thrown out of shops and towns. The image of officers reclaiming their aunts home as they no money to pay their taxes and the nameless grave that they buried their aunt in somewhere in some nameless woods was burned over every scene. At least He had Lup, he thought he had Lup. Something so small as a secret had made him feel… this way.  
He had never known this feeling before and he didn’t like it. His chest felt heavy and his head was full of problems he would never have even given a second thought. His shoulders sunk and his brow furrowed and he could not even force a smile. He sat there for a few moments until the door opened again, this time brazenly and without hesitation. The lights flicked on and Lup’s smug voice struck his ears.  
“Okay, Dingus, what’s going on?”

Taako didn’t move. He pretended to be deep in meditation. He could feel Lup’s smile, feel her half smug half joking look on her face. He could feel as the the expression as whole faded. Lup stepped out of the doorway, closing the door behind her and scooping Taako up as she sat beside him.

“You know, you’re really bad at that.” She said. Taako opened his eyes and did his best fake a tired smile up at her.

“What’s up, Goofus, why ya buggin me in the middle of the night?”

Lup’s smile perked up for a moment. “Taako, as much as I appreciate the opportunity to make a fantasy Billy Joel joke, I’m being serious. What’s up?”

Taako sat up and leaned against her shoulder, looking at his hands has he touched all of his fingers together but kept his palms separate. “Nothing, Lu... You sure everything is alright with... you?”

Lup sighed and draped an arm around her brother, shifting his position. “For being such a drama queen, you’re not very good at acting. Is it something you can’t tell me?”

Taako froze, his head rested against Lup’s chest, he looked up at her, unable to hide the sadness in his face. “Are there things we can’t tell each other now?”

For a second Lup simply returned his stare. Her smile faded completely and her smugness is gone entirely. She took a deep breath and blew the air out through pursed lips. She looked away from Taako, shaking her head.

“Barry told me I had been acting weird, wondered why had called him ‘Barold.’ I figured it out pretty quick, but I told him that I was just tired. You found out about Lucretia, then?”

“How long were you gonna wait to tell me? _Were_ e you gonna tell me?”

“Of course I was, Taako! I just… it felt weird, you know?”

“How long?” Taako asked, his face suddenly more serious than anything else.

“...What year is it?”

“Years, Lulu, YEARS?!”

“I told you I felt weird about it! I’ve never been with two people before. This whole thing is weird, we live weird lives and… I don’t know. Barry and Lu were just so cool about the whole thing. It felt so natural but… I guess the whole thing just threw me for a loop and I wasn’t sure how you were gonna react. You’ve acted differently ever since I married Barry and I didn’ want you thinking that I had left you behind or that I cared more about them then I do about you.”

“Well, Lulu… mission failed, I guess.” Taako rolled off of her, falling flat back into bed. “For your information, I wouldn’t have cared. I may be a drama queen but if it were me… I would have told you.”

“look...” Lup paused to think of what to say. “I...I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, taako. I should have. I meant what I said, taako. You’re my heart, nothing’s gonna ever be strong enough to change that. We’re not alone anymore, though, it's not just the two of us, we’ve got other people who care about us, who won’t leave us behind. Is it so wrong to… want that? To be spoiled with a big family? To have unconditional love from more than one person in all of existence? We’ve crossed worlds together, Taako, can’t I just get caught up in it for once?”

Lup’s head lowered, she stared at the ground, a grimace on her face as she waited for Taako to say something back. A pillow hit her in the back of the head.

“All you had to do was say sorry, yeesh, and I’m the drama queen!” Taako was sitting up now, smiling at her as she looked back at them. Tears formed in the corners of her eyes and before they knew it, they were both crying and hugging. They seperated and, almost as though looking in a mirror, they laughed and wiped away their tears.

“I get it, Lup. I do. Just… don’t feel like there’s things you can’t tell me, okay? Promise?”

“Promise. Now get some meditating in, ya big goof, we gotta look for the light tomorrow.”

Taako groaned and fell back into bed. “It's already whatever o'clock in the morning, Lu, can’t it wait?”

“I mean, no, it literally can’t.” She smiled and began to leave, but stopped in the doorway and looked back at him. “Taako… You know I’m never gonna leave you behind, right?”

He smiled back. “Yeah, Lulu.” For some reason he thought that they were both lying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took a long time, huh? Whoops, lol. Anyway, If you have any requests (I.E. A new chapter, a one off, or something completely different.) and don't want it to take several months, check my twitter out here:https://twitter.com/ugotthecrowbar


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